The president’s son, Eric Trump, was repeatedly photographed in Ukraine, and images of Eric’s time in the country have begun to circulate on the internet in the wake of the latest round of Trump family complaints about supposed Biden family corruption in Ukraine. President Donald Trump and his allies have claimed that, as vice president, Joe Biden tried to protect his son, Hunter, from legal scrutiny over his work with a corrupt Ukrainian energy company. There’s no evidence for this allegation. Meanwhile, Eric Trump was in Ukraine in 2009 to serve as a judge for the Miss Ukraine Universe pageant.
Here’s a picture of Eric Trump in Ukraine. Eric Trump’s Ukrainian ties need to be investigated by Congress NOW. #EricTrumpsUkraineScandal pic.twitter.com/XBpJBCx6eN
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) October 15, 2020
Apparently, the pageant claims that Eric was not paid for his contribution to the proceedings. Did Eric do anything else while he was there? Around the time of his visit, the Trump Organization and two of Eric’s adult siblings in particular were pursuing a business deal in the country. In February 2006, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump visited Ukraine and met with then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s adviser Viktor Tkachuk and construction executive Andrey Zaika. In 2008 — the year before Eric’s visit to the country — Trump Jr. was in Ukraine yet again to meet with developers.
No Trump Organization project in Ukraine ever came to fruition. The Trump Organization’s list of failed project ideas also includes a development plan that the company was pursuing in Russia for awhile, a prospect which the Trump team initially hid from the public. In Ukraine, the Trump Organization utilized the services of developers Dmitry Buriak and Felix Sater, the latter of whom is a felon, past FBI source, and also worked with the Trump Organization on the potential Russia project. When the Russia project was in development, Sater suggested that Trump — who was then a candidate for president — should visit Russia, which he did not do at the time.
Despite the Trump team’s unfounded claims of Biden family corruption, the fact of the matter is that it’s the Trumps who have spent years profiting off of foreign connections. While Trump has been in office, they’ve continued to profit — The Washington Post reports that over $1.2 million in federal money has gone directly to the Trump Organization as payment for using Trump properties to house Secret Service agents who are guarding the president and his family members.
